William R. Galen

William R. Galen
Personal details
Born	1914 Cleveland, Ohio
Died	1994
Nativity	United States
Awards	Purple Heart; Bronze Star
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
Arm / service	Coast Artillery Corps
ASN	01044825
Rank	Captain
Rank at Ritchie	Second Lieutenant
Camp Ritchie	Class 3 (2 November – 23 December 1942)
Section	D
Team	IPW 15

Awards and honors

Purple Heart	Bronze Star

Teammates

Team — IPW 15

These are other soldiers listed on the same team roster. People moved between teams; overlapping service dates are not always documented.

Research notes on this page are compiled from the source file and later edits. They may be unverified, incomplete, or incorrect, and should not be treated as established fact. Please correct the article or add sources on the talk page. For class-roster terms, see About the data.

Sources & confidence: Treat Research notes as leads, not settled fact. Prefer NARA, the class roster, newspapers, Find a Grave, or published histories for contested claims. Mark unsourced claims with {{Needs source}}, or explain disagreements on talk. Baseline import notes: About the data.

William R. Galen (1914–1994) was a United States Army captain who trained at Camp Ritchie, Maryland, in Class 3 and served with IPW Team 15 in the Mediterranean theater.

Biography

William R. “Bill” Galen was born in 1914 in Cleveland, Ohio. He grew up speaking some German through family heritage, attended Valparaiso College during the Great Depression, and taught school in Ohio before he was drafted in 1941.

After Officers Candidate School in 1942, Galen trained at Camp Ritchie (Class 3), graduating on 23 December 1942. Shipped to North Africa in April 1943, he took part in the Sicily invasion that July and later in the Salerno and Anzio landings. Promoted to captain, he entered Rome in June 1944 and spent the last eight months of the war as executive officer for POW interrogations at Fifth Army headquarters in Florence, commanding HQ Detachment 2680. Over the course of the war he served with the 3rd, 36th, and 85th Infantry Divisions as well as II Corps and Fifth Army headquarters, and he received the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. In the summer of 1945 he served with the U.S. occupation force in Austria, returning to the United States in November 1945. Among the Ritchie Boys who served with him was Sergeant George W. Visko, killed at Anzio on 27 March 1944.

After leaving the Army, Galen briefly returned to the Midwest, then moved to Los Angeles in 1946. Under the G.I. Bill he earned a graduate degree at the University of Southern California and became a music professor. He married in 1961, settled in Nebraska with his wife Betty, and taught voice, piano, and German. Galen died in 1994.

Gallery

• 
  RB Lt. Bill Galen is in the center wearing a helmet, and Ritchie Boy Sgt. George W. Visko is on the far left
• 
  Sgt. George Visko interrogates a German POW in Dragoni, Italy, in the fall of 1943.
• 
• 
  Visko's gravesite in the Sicily–Rome American Cemetery and Memorial in Nettuno, Italy.
• 
  Galen paid a photographer to take this studio portrait in Rome, summer 1944, shortly after he was promoted to captain.
• 
  The Cleveland Press newspaper also took Galen's picture in the summer of 1944, as he interrogated German POWs.
• 
• 
  William R. Galen at center with officers under his command at the 5th Army HQ IPW detachment in Florence, Christmastime 1944. Most are known to be Ritchie Boys. At lower left are: Eigen, Hobelman, Galen, Hergenreter, Allen; the back row includes Jacobson and Nielsen (Eigen / Hergenreter / Allen / Jacobson / Nielsen not uniquely matched to roster pages)
• 
  Cpl. Salvatore Salemi, at left, with fellow Ritchie Boys Lts. Bill Galen and Nick Sottile, Trapani, Sicily, 1943

Technical record

Field	Imported value
Approx Age at Death	80
Class_ASN	44825
Class_Name	GALEN, William R.
match_method	asn_partial_name_exact
row_source	both

Timeline

• 1914 — Born in Cleveland, Ohio.
• 4 August 1941 — Enlisted at Toledo, Ohio (enlisted ASN 35019688).
• 1942 — Completed Officers Candidate School; entered Camp Ritchie G-2 training.
• 23 December 1942 — Graduated Camp Ritchie Class 3.
• April 1943 — Shipped to North Africa.
• July 1943 — Took part in the Allied invasion of Sicily.
• 1943–1944 — Participated in the Salerno and Anzio landings; later entered Rome.
• 1944–1945 — Executive officer for POW interrogations, Fifth Army HQ, Florence (HQ Detachment 2680).
• Summer 1945 — Assigned to U.S. occupation forces in Austria.
• November 1945 — Returned to the United States.
• 1946 — Moved to Los Angeles; later earned a graduate degree at USC and taught music.
• 1961 — Married; later settled in Nebraska.
• 1994 — Died.

Sources

• Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page posts on William R. Galen (2022-08-29, 2022-09-02, and related)
• g2warletters.com — William R. Galen wartime letters and photos
• Florence IPW detachment, Christmas 1944 (Galen / Hobelman)
• Trapani 1943 — Salemi, Galen, and Sottile
• Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. (The Ritchie History Museum), Classes 1–31 roster data
• Dan Gross research spreadsheets, including original Excel timeline/roster work, combined with other research and records
• NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
• 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
• Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2022-08-29 (1 post)
• Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2022-09-02 (1 post)
• Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2026-05-05 (1 post)
• Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2026-06-24 (1 post)
• Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2026-08-13 (1 post)
• Facebook-linked source: g2warletters.com
• Dan Gross, Timeline of William R. Galen for Camp Ritchie (private research document; 1 source documents reviewed)
• Dan Gross, Timeline of Galen, William R. for Camp Ritchie (private research files; selected non-private narrative findings; 1 source files: WILLIAM R. GALEN.docx)